1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in automatic laser scanning bar code symbol reading systems, wherein laser scanning and bar code symbol reading operations are automatically initiated in response to the automatic detection of objects and/or bar code symbols present thereon.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Bar code symbols have become widely used in many environments such as, for example, point-of-sale (POS) stations in retail stores and supermarkets, inventory management document tracking, and diverse data control applications. To meet the growing demands of this technological innovation, bar code symbol readers of various types have been developed for sending bar code symbols and producing symbol character data for use as input in automated data processing systems.
In general, prior art hand-held bar code symbol readers using laser scanning mechanisms can be classified into two major categories.
The first category of hand-held laser-based bar code symbol readers includes lightweight hand-held laser scanners having manually-actuated trigger mechanisms for initiating laser scanning and bar code symbol reading operations. The user positions the hand-held laser scanner at a specified distance from the object bearing the bar code symbol, manually activates the scanner to initiate reading, and then moves the scanner over other objects bearing bar code symbols to be read. Prior art bar code symbol readers illustrative of this first category are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,575,625; 4,845,349; 4,825,057; 4,903,848; 5,107,100; 5,080,456; 5,047,617; 4,387,297; 4,806,742; 5,021,641; 5,468,949; 5,180,904; 5,206,492; 4,593,186; 5,247,162; 4,897,532; 5,250,792; 5,047,617; 4,835,374; 5,017,765; 5,600,121; 5,149,950; and 4,409,470.
The second category of hand-held laser-based bar code symbol readers includes lightweight hand-held laser scanners having automatically-activated (i.e. triggerless) mechanisms for initiating laser scanning and bar code symbol reading operations. The hand-held laser scanner is positioned at a specified distance from an object bearing a bar code symbol, the presence of the object is automatically detected using an infrared (IR) light beam or a low-power laser light beam, the presence of the bar code symbol on the object is detected using a visible laser light beam, and thereafter the detected bar code symbol is automatically scanned and decoded (i.e. read) to produce symbol character data representative of the read bar code symbol. Examples of laser-based bar code symbol reading systems belonging to this second category are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,844,227; 4,639,606; 4,933,538; 5,828,048; 5,828,049; 5,825,012; 5,808,285; 5,796,091; 5,789,730; 5,789,731; 5,777,315; 5,767,501; 5,736,982; 5,742,043; 5,528,024; 5,525,789; D-385,265; 5,484,992; 5,661,292; 5,637,852; 5,468,951; 5,627,359; 5,424,525; 5,616,908; 5,591,953; 5,340,971; 5,340,973; 5,557,093; 5,260,553.
Such automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol readers perform aggressive bar code symbol reading operations that are well suited for POS applications where the laser scanner is configured as a fixed presentation scanner (where the scanner is fixed while the bar-coded objects are moved through the scanning field). However, such aggressive bar code symbol reading operations may be problematic in some portable applications (where the scanner is moved or aimed onto a barcode label for reading), for example, when attempting to read a particular bar code from a list of bar code symbols closely printed on a bar code menu or like structure. In this situation, the scan line may scan across two or more bar code symbols at the same time thereby causing an inadvertent bar code symbol reading error. Oftentimes, such bar code symbol reading errors must be corrected at their time of occurrence, wasting valuable time and resources of the user.
In the fixed “presentation” mode of operation, because objects are often swept through the scanning field in random orientations, it is preferable to use an omni-directional scan pattern; however, such omni-directional scan pattern exacerbates the menu reading problem as described above.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,247,647; 5,962,838; and 5,719,385 describe bar code symbol reading devices having multiple line and single line scanning modes that potentially combat these problems. However, because such devices fail to provide the user with adequate control over the disposition of the bar code symbol reading process, such devices are susceptible to the menu reading problem as described above when the device (operating in single line scan mode) is positioned at a large distance from the object and the scan line is large due to the scanning geometry of the scanner.
Thus, there is a great need in the art for an improved system and method of reading bar code symbols using automatically-activated laser scanning mechanisms capable of automatically reading bar code symbols printed on diverse types of objects including, but not limited to, printed bar code symbol menus.